1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a CVD system which forms a thin film by using a surface wave excitation plasma.
2. Description of Related Art
In a semiconductor manufacturing process, a plasma CVD system is used which performs thin film manufacture by utilizing a plasma. As such plasma CVD system, in the prior art, a capacitively-coupled plasma (CCP), an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP), an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR—Electron Cyclotron Resonance) plasma processing system, and the like have been used. Furthermore, in recent years, a surface wave excitation plasma (SWP) processing system has come into use, and this can easily generate a plasma of a high density over a wider area than heretofore.
With such a SWP plasma CVD system, first, a material gas which includes an element for the thin film which is to be deposited is fed into the plasma reactive chamber along with a process gas which constitutes elements of some radicals to generate the surface wave excitation plasma. And, by the material gas being decomposed and by chemical reactions being initiated by the surface wave excitation plasma, the thin film is caused deposition upon the substrate. With such a prior art system, a gas feeding section is provided at the side wall of the plasma reactive chamber, and the gas is fed from the side wall of the plasma reactive chamber in the vicinity of a dielectric plate (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent publication No. 2000-348896).